Offshore renewable energy (ORE) is expanding rapidly across the ICES region, with offshore wind leading the way and other technologies, such as floating solar and tidal energy, emerging in parallel. As these developments scale up in number and spatial extent, they are transforming marine environments and presenting new challenges for ecosystem-based science. This theme session invites contributions that explore how we can better understand and assess the ecological effects of ORE at both project and regional scales. While much research has focused on short-term, site-specific impacts, there is an urgent need to develop long-term, cumulative, and ecosystem-level perspectives. We welcome interdisciplinary studies that address the complexity of scaling up assessments, from individual structures to entire ecosystems. Contributions that evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation measures, such as nature-inclusive designs, are also encouraged.
Topics of interest include:
- Ecosystem-level and cumulative environmental impacts of ORE.
- Regional coordination of monitoring and data sharing
- Integration and valorisation of heterogeneous monitoring data.
- Emerging approaches to assess long-term ecological change
- Effectiveness of mitigation measures.
We particularly encourage submissions that draw on empirical data, modelling, or synthesis across multiple sites or technologies. Contributions that bridge ecological understanding with policy relevance (e.g., MSFD, OSPAR, MSP) are also welcome.
